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unless you are a serious nut with movies, games, etc ,you may not be able to tell the difference. I looked at the various models in stores, and found out they use some bright mode to make them look more appealing in stores. Theree are many publications out there that do reviews side by side and tell you all of the boring details of flat screens....superheat, subcooling, etc, but in reality they are so vastly superior than your regular tube, any one would be an improvement. According to one magazine, the Vizio's are made the best, and assembled here in the states, as opposed to the rest which are assembled elsewhere. While that is not a true made in usa deal, it caught my eye. I bought the fifty incher plasma, and it is amazing. While waiting for Fios to get installed, I too used rabbit ears and picked up high def local broadcasts.

My Sammy's

There are some DLP models mad by Samsung, that use an LED Light Engine, there is no projector bulb to replace. They use the "Phlatlight Led" as posted here:http://www.luminus.com/content1034

The HL61a750 is one thats available. I own one Sammy DLP with projection bulb, one with the LED engine, and a Sammy LCD. All of them have beautiful color reproduction.
What I like about the DLP's is the dollars per inch of display. The LCD is used in my office. All of them have a good range of controls to adjust their picture to your liking.
One factor in shopping I used was watts used by the tv. That translates into heat, an enemy of most electronic parts.

Hey Mayguy did direct give you free equipment for that t.v. upgrade and dvr?

I am ready to upgrade to HD, I ran my wires under ground last year in PVC

Yes, we did get it for free. At first we didn't, then we told her that we been DirecTV customer for 3 years, and and good standing with our account, and felt we could do it for free, and we have HD DVR on our main TV, and then just the HD receiver in the bedroom.

Plasmas have the best picture hands down. But they struggle in bright rooms, use lots of power, produce lots of heat, and they are less reliable than other types.

LCD has almost equaled plasma in picture quality and can actually look better in bright light conditions.

Rear projection is still a viable type and can be had for a much better price when getting into the larger screen size. The DLP's are pretty dang sharp.

The LCD's some in two basic ratings, 720 and 1080. 1080 is best, but until you get to the larger screen sizes it's tough to see the difference.

I'd stay away from the low end models of any brand. Buy a medium to high end model depending on what your application is. If this is your main TV or a home theater unit, I'd spend the extra $$ and get a high end one. If for a bedroom or secondary space, a mid-grade model should do fine. I just bought a 32" LCD for my bedroom, I got the Insignia (Best Buy's store brand made by LG) and I'm quite pleased with it.

The next TV type to come out will be called OLED, organic light emitting diode. The technology is similar to what is used on many cell phone displays. There is already a model or two out, but they are expensive. When the price falls and they work the kinks out of making this type in the larger screen sizes, OLED may could be the best choice. Probably looking at a couple more years though.

Okay, so we went shopping today. Holy crap! What a bunch of stuff to figure out. Of all the places we went, the most knowledgeable guy was at Costco. He was the only one that knew about the refresh rate. The higher the better. There are same manufacturors, same size, same apperance but different models with vastly different quality and price. He also reccommended the Vizio brand. Best warranty, they evidentally come to your home and do the repair, and if it isn't fixed you get a new one. Sounds pretty good to me, but I'm still gonna research more. Thanks for all the input guys!

"The trouble with the world is the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent full of doubt" -Bertrand Russell